An Indian who signed on the Treaty of Versailles!🖋️
3 interesting things I came across last week.
Hello and welcome to the fifth edition of my newsletter - The Curious Press!
This is a weekly newsletter where I share three interesting things that I came across in the last week and my thoughts on them.
So, without wasting any further time and keeping up with your attention span, let’s begin!
Technology moves fast! 🚀
We often hear or utter the line "technology moves fast", but at times we don't realise how true this line is!
Just take any example, trace its origin and see how quickly we have evolved and upgraded these technologies. The Wright Brothers took their first flight in around 1903 and fast forward to 1969, we literally put a man on the moon!
If you calculate, it is just a span of 66 years in which we went from learning how to fly, to sending a human 382,500 kms away from our planet into outer space! I was recently reading an article around this and it made me think that technology really fast forwards things at such a pace that we don't even realise.
This image that I found on Reddit (r/Damnthatsinteresting) is so fascinating and it showcases two very significant moments of human history. And now with the advancements we are making in the world of AI, I am hopeful that everything will move at an even more faster rate!
Fear-based marketing for AI courses! 🚨
Previously we used to buy courses to get a job. Now because of AI, we're buying them to save our job!
I’m not saying this, this is what the ads for AI courses made me think. It is interesting to see how the online course selling campaigns have evolved over time!
"AI will take away your job and you will become useless and jobless!"
You must be reading or hearing such lines a lot recently, specially while seeing the AI related course ads.
This is known as fear-based marketing. It is a marketing tactic which tries to influence the audience's psychology and attempts to get them to take an action to minimize that fear.
The action most of the times is to get them to buy a certain product. We're seeing a lot of these fear-based marketing campaigns being used for selling AI related courses. Though this marketing tactic has always been controversial, it shouldn't be looked down upon as long as the marketer is being ethical.
A fear-based marketing campaign can be considered ethical when it increases the awareness of the consumers correctly and provides them with a legitimate solution (which is the product) to overcome this fear and make their lives better. Fabricating or intentionally faking information or data to gain profits from fear and confusion of others isn't something that should be done.
Of course, learning about AI-ML and newer technologies using these courses is necessary. But these ads sometimes can be overwhelming, and one should be aware that this is a marketing tactic, and it is important to do your due research before buying any course.
There’s an Indian person who signed on the Treaty of Versailles! 🤯
I’m sure you must have read about the Treaty of Versailles in school. Well, you’ll remember it if you were a nerd. But if you were an ordinary student just like me, let me explain it in a very simple manner.
It was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919 and is considered as the most important treaty of World War I because it marked the end of the Great War.
Now, this treaty was signed between the warring nations and even British India had signed on it. Two people representing British India signed it and out of them, one was an Indian Maharaja. Check out the painting below.
Now you must be thinking who is this Indian person on a World War painting and what is he doing there?
His name is Maharaja Ganga Singh and he was the Ruler of the Princely State of Bikaner and he was representing British India in this treaty.
On behalf of British India, two people had signed this treaty, one of which was Maharaja Ganga Singh.
Even though he was representing British India in this treaty, an Indian Maharaja's presence here was a first step in international diplomacy for our to-be independent nation.
And this was the first time that an Indian's signature was a part of such an important document in world history.
Just imagine, because of their signature, literally the world war ended! Just think of the power that their signature held!
Also, Maharaja Ganga Singh was an Indian Maharaja with a modern outlook and he executed a lot of development projects in his princely state of Bikaner.
And he established a city named Sri Ganganagar, which in spite of being located in Rajasthan's desert area, the irrigation system there is one of the best in our country.
Anyway, in case you ever visit London, don't forget to see this original painting in the Imperial War Museum.
With that, we come to an end of the fifth edition of my quick newsletter. I hope you liked it! I wish to do this weekly and inculcate a habit of writing while also sharing the things I found interesting in the last week. Hope this goes well. *fingers crossed*